Posted on 10/14/2007 10:13:04 AM PDT by BCrago66
I am haunted by the death of Carol Anne Gotbaum.
I didn't know the mother of three who died shackled to a bench in the Phoenix airport on Sept. 28, en route to an alcohol treatment center in Tucson. I don't know, beyond what I read in the newspapers, what troubles weighed on her. But I do know this: Based on my own recent flight experiences, hers was a death foretold.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
First of all thanks for posting this. This give a completely new spin on the story.
Secondly its stories like this that make me glad that I’m in a job where I don’t have to fly anymore.
Sorry to keep coming back with only partially developed thoughts, but perhaps part of the problem is with government subsidies and/or lenient bankruptcy judges, which seem to allow these airlines to stiff their creditors, re-organize, and then survive only to stiff their creditors (and customers) once again. I know that some airlines have been twice bankrupt, and that USAir has gone through bankruptcy at least once.
Maybe instead of allowing these debt-ridden, poorly managed businesses to keep screwing the customer, bankruptcy judges should - within the discretion allowed by the pertinent statutes - allow these airlines to just liquidate and die.
http://www.theagapecenter.com/Treatment-Centers/New-York.htm
The woman is to blame in the first place, the husband takes the second spot. Any idiot that expects an alcoholic to fly alone to rehab is not putting the needs of the alcoholic above their own. The airline is not responsible for the delivery of drunks to rehab.
I expect the airlines to protect their passengers from drunks and other nuts.
> [quote]Still, she was denied her reserved seat on the 1:30 flight. Nor did they allow her to board the next flight at 2:58 — which, of course, was also overbooked. Finally, Mesa’s counter personnel refused to let willing passengers switch with the clearly distraught Gotbaum. When she began to weep and protest, they called the police, who handcuffed her arms behind her back and dragged her away to a holding cell. They left her chained alone to a bench, crying inconsolably. Not long after, she was found dead, the chain shackling her to the bench stretched across her throat[/quote]
This is the part I don’t understand. If she was in a secure and confined holding area, why was she still handcuffed? Why was she handcuffed in the first place? Was she being violent? Did she spazz out, or do something that could not have otherwise been resolved by a burly security guard showing her the exit door?
Handcuffs are not designed to be worn for extended periods of time: only as long as it takes to get the prisoner to proper confined quarters. Fifteen minutes is more than enough time for most folk. An hour is considered a very long time, and two hours would be excessive.
Cuffing someone to a bench unsupervised would surely be against policy, if not against the law. Prisoners are generally not supposed to be left handcuffed and unsupervised.
I also don’t quite understand how she managed to choke herself with her chains. I’d need to see a diagram.
There is alot with this story that requires diligent enquiry. Something doesn’t smell right. The whole setup seems mickey-mouse (handcuffing someone to a bench using chains? That sounds Eighteenth-Century at best!)
There is more to this story than meets the eye.
omg.....What a crappy article. The author needs to go back to flipping burgers.
“There is a lot more evidence that she was murdered by airport police, than there is that her behavior warranted the death penalty for having a medical/mental condition.”
***
Actually, most of what is out there now consists of rumor, speculation, accusation and innuendo. More than a few reports, especially initially, were out and out wrong. I’m not sure we have any actual evidence of a crime committed against Ms. Gottbaum. Investigation (actually more than one investigation)into the matter is still going on. I’m not blaming or defending anyone at this point...I’d just rather wait till the investigations are over and some actual evidence is in.
I personally think this Washington Post article is irreponsible at this point. What is its purpose, besides inciting hatred and perhaps fear of Useless Air and flying in general? Bad enough that I know some folks who are afraid to fly since 9/11, but why try to instill even more fear and loathing, especially since we don’t know all the facts of this particular situation?
Have you seen the security camera video yet ? It sure looks like airport police choked her to death while other police blocked the view.
.
but then again, I guess chains just get wrapped around peoples necks at random all the time these days. This poor lady reminds me of my ex wife and it brings me to tears thinking about her getting murdered for having an attack of hysteria because injustice was done to her and she snapped. I can understand how very powerful and self important Airport Police would want to kill her in this situationt, My ex was very talented at arousing the emotions. She knew just what to say to evoke anger as she had her attacks of hysteria and cops do not like being disrespected.
Well said!!!!!!!!
Well said!!!!!!!!
My daughter calls the airlines “US Scare”. With the unreliability of all airlines these days, I feel the family was wrong in letting a suicidal woman fly by herself after having duties to do at home like delivering her children to school before she drove herself to the airport. She was extremely fragile at this point and they had been through plenty of experiences taking her to a clinic for alcholics. They knew this might have been her last chance at rehabilitation. She was left on her own at her most vulnerable time and in an air-line night mare.
US Air certainly has its faults in this situation, but the knowledgeable family hoping for the best in a cross-country flight with connectors and cancellations is most at fault.
Cordio
Me either! I cannot, for the life of me, figure it out nor have I read any accounting of exactly how it happened.
Most people here are not arguing that USAir is legally liable for Gotbaum’s death. But the evidence is overwhelming that it is crappy airline, with rude employees, and that it deliberately overbooks its flights because it cannot earn a profit honestly.
That policy creates anxiety in people without emotional problems; it can create greater problems in those with emotional problems. So, in my opinion, there is some moral - not legal - culpability on the part of USAir, although the primary responsibility for her death belongs to the airport authority.
..... and would you authorize this protection method to include dropping of an officers knee from a jump onto the throat of a beautiful young lady held down on the floor because she is angry ? .......have you ever been angry in public ?
“...and that it deliberately overbooks its flights because it cannot earn a profit honestly.”
***
Actually, overbooking flights is something most airlines do on a regular basis. Even Southwest, which I very much love more so than Useless Air, habitually overbooks. It’s a perfectly legal and common practice under present laws and industry guidelines.
She was suicidal.She had previously tried to kill herself. How difficult was it to get the long chain around her neck? She was found sitting on the floor.
I don’t understand why SOMEONE in her near/immediate family didn’t accompany her to the treatment center.
If they cared so much for her one would think that someone would have.
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